The main objective of the present guideline is to ensure the protection of groundwater intended for human consumption. Consequently, it is mainly focused on the protection of groundwater sources (e.g. pumping well, tapped springs). However, although the protection of sensitive areas for drinking water supply must be given high priority, good practices have to be implemented at a larger scale too, in order to sustain the resources as well as the aquatic ecosystems: awareness must be built in order to avoid any contamination of the water cycle (quality aspect) and to preserve water resources (quantity aspect), in particular within the aquifer areas

Publications you might be interested

• An average of 78% of water points are functional across the 11 countries analyzed.

• The high failure rates early after installation are troubling: almost 15% after one year and 25% of water points are non-functional by their fourth year after installation. This indicates widespread problems with poor quality water point installation, due to a range of problems that may include professionalism and skills around contracts, construction and supervision; borehole siting; lack of quality control of hardware; or lack of post-construction monitoring and problem resolution.

• Handpumps are often singled out as technology that fails, but analysis of other water point types show similar functionality levels, and that tens of thousands of handpumps are providing a service

This poster was peer-reviewed and presented at the 7th RWSN Forum in Abidjan, Cote'Ivoire 2016.

The 2016 Rural Water Supply Network Forum in Abidjan was the first global gathering to consider the practical challenge of how everyone worldwide can get access to safe, affordable water by 2030. It was also the first RWSN Forum to take place in a francophone country, in the 25 years since the creation of the network.
The Forum gathered 467 rural water sector practitioners from over 300 organisations from 64 countries in Africa, Asia, Americas, and Europe, in a bilingual (English/French) four day event. It was opened by the Prime Minister of Côte d’Ivoire, Mr Daniel Kaplan Duncan. We were joined by HE State Minster James Dengchol Tot, Minister of Water, Irrigation and Electricity of Ethiopia, as well as a delegation from AMCOW.

This Forum proceedings compiles all peer-reviewed materials. Separate downloads and links to the films can be found at: https://rwsn7.net/content/

The book discusses basic concepts on key topics to managing a small piped water system ideally for up to 1,000 households. It presents tools that can be adapted by Community-Based Water Organizations (CBOs) for use in their operations, such as forms, checklists and procedural guidelines. Illustrative examples have also been compiled from the experiences of the district local governments, support organizations and CBOs operating in East and West Java, who participated in the Multi-Village Pooling (MVP) Project. This toolkit seeks to compile a set of ready resources for organizations supporting Indonesian CBOs and CBOs themselves, which was not previously available despite many years of rural water investment projects. The book introduces fundamental concepts in an easy to-understand way, so that a number of discussions have been simplified. This will give users a basic understanding enough to seek further resources or references or advice from experts, which is encouraged.

DISCLAIMER: This is a non-RWSN publication and endorsement by RWSN or any of its member organisations should not be inferred.

Step-by-step risk management guidance for drinking-water supplies in small communities

The WSP approach is designed to help a community manage health risks that could threaten its water supply. By following the WSP approach, community members identify and prioritize health risks and, where necessary, take steps, over time,to improve the safety of the water supply using available resources. WSPs are applicable for a range of scales and levels, and in different contexts. A WSP can be developed for all existing schemes, from point sources to piped systems, as well as for new supplies. In new schemes, it should be straightforward for the supporting agency to incorporate the WSP approach into initial community mobilization and project implementation.

DISCLAIMER: This is a non-RWSN publication and endorsement by RWSN or any of its member organisations should not be inferred.

The purpose of this manual is to present the reader with information on how to build and operate a good spring catchment. However, several thousand technical briefs would be required to cover every possible permutation of the many factors that serve to classify a spring. In practice, no spring is like any other, and therefore guidance in the form of basic principles can only be presented here. The information contained in this manual should be considered and then adapted to suite the specifics of each setting where a spring is located.

Related Collaborations

Borehole drilling is relatively underdeveloped in Sierra Leone compared to other countries in West Africa despite its potential. An eight-month project “Tapping Treasure: Cost-effective boreholes in Sierra Leone” supports: (i) government and NGOs to develop their capacity to manage borehole drilling and (ii) drillers to manage risks. The project will contribute to increasing the demand for boreholes, reducing the cost of drilling and improving construction quality.